patrick.net

Science is not a Political discussion.

Science works wonders for providing engineering solutions. Not so great for solving Social and Economic problems.

I watched Paul last night, an entertaining premise in it's own right.
But by the middle of the movie, it was clear it had an agenda message.
My first instinct was to change the channel, but then it gave me insight to what bothers about the Science/Politics relationship these days. I certainly am not anti Science, but the way Science is wielded these days, like a Holy scepter to drink from the cup of knowledge that will cleanse all of your sins. But I couldn't put my finger on it.

Science is being used in Modern Politics as a Religious antidote, like Religion(Christianity to be sure, Jews aren't under attack) is some kind of disease that can be treated with a Liberal dose of Science. And not the Laws of Science either, these people are going head to head against religion with Theories and Speculation. One form imagination doing battle of the wits with another form of imagination. Like the Religious right that think they can Ungay someone, with a good old fashioned logic argument.

The thing that bothers me about Paul, is it reckoned that if someone could just put their hands on some religious persons head and just project the knowledge of Science in that person, and he would be miraculously cured, like Christianity is a disease in the first place.

This premise is very naive, there are plenty of Christians, that did quite well in Science, they studied Science and perhaps got out standing grades while doing so. Just because someone understands something, doesn't mean they understand it as religion or in lieu of religion.

Science has no business being hijacked by the Liberal left as some antidote Jesus begone tonic. You guys have taken the fun out of Science, now it's hard to get excited by new discoveries with out some how feeling like you're being played once again by the Liberal institutions putting shit on the Religious right once again.

Can we please have Science back, or at least put the Adults back in charge. The ones that respected Science enough to not use it as some secret deity to threat to unleash the power of Global Warming on all of the SUV Republican sinners?

Now that I have a clear understanding of what has been gnawing at me, about this topic. I will leave it at that, and this is last I'll ever mention it here. But I really want you to think about what you are doing to the future of Science. Do you want a legacy, centuries from now, that the contemporary Science crackpots arguing with the Religious crackpots, to get them to repent in the name of Darwin?
Or it could be at this rate Science may very well end up as a religion.
A religious book written by a Zealot consortium that called Mars a rock and accepted the theory of everything as the universal accepted version, and anyone that posed counter theories or beliefs gets ridiculed politically ostracized or by then even drawn and quartered.

All of which is happening now, except for that last part, but we're getting there.

https://www.eugyppius.com/p/study-the-larger-a-scientific-field

Study: The larger a scientific field, the more conformist that field becomes, and the more lethargic its progress
Bad news for Team Science. ...
A recurrent pattern, since January 2020, has been the tendency of Team Science to get wronger with each passing moment. I won’t ever defend containment, masking or mass vaccination, but in the beginning – when Science first hit upon these ideas – the possibility that they’d have some mitigating effect was at least defensible. Over time, though, as events have discredited each of these policies in turn, it’s proven impossible to remove any of them from the scientific canon, and all signs are that the Science Followers will follow these broken ideas straight off a cliff. Corona simply attracted too much attention too soon, and rapidly became mired in a set of early, ill-informed and unproductive paradigms, that will probably still be plaguing the Science twenty years from now.

TPB says

Science is being used in Modern Politics as a Religious antidote, like Religion(Christianity to be sure, Jews aren't under attack) is some kind of disease that can be treated with a Liberal dose of Science. And not the Laws of Science either, these people are going head to head against religion with Theories and Speculation.

In the last few years, it's become abundantly clear to me that people do see "science" as some sort of religion. Remember "follow the science"?

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18/opinion/fake-news-media-attention.html

That's the craziest thing I've ever seen in "mainstream news". Science is nothing but the study of nature, and of objective truth. "Follow the science" is "believe the experts" - that is NOT science. There are no authorities in science.

NOTHING about these last 2 years had anything to do with actual science - it's a perversion of science. Most people in scientific disciplines do not exercise critical thinking, and it's shocking to me. I would never have guessed. It's difficult to grasp that a bunch of engineers and scientists around me will blindly follow a narrative just because an "expert" said so.

richwicks says

In the last few years, it's become abundantly clear to me that people do see "science" as some sort of religion. Remember "follow the science"?

Yeah I was reading my two posts there, and was thinking, "well that really escalated fast!" in just 10 years, didn't it?

Tenpoundbass says

richwicks says

In the last few years, it's become abundantly clear to me that people do see "science" as some sort of religion. Remember "follow the science"?

Yeah I was reading my two posts there, and was thinking, "well that really escalated fast!" in just 10 years, didn't it?

Sure did!

I really can't get over how so many engineers I know don't actually think. I thought they just didn't bother to follow world events and that's why they were so clueless and repeated the propaganda, but even when it effects them directly, they don't even do basic elementary thinking. One engineer's wife, quite obviously, doesn't want me in her house because I've been quite open about the refusal to be vaccinated, and she thinks I am a threat to them as a result. She won't state it, but it's quite obvious, as any meetup is outside.

I just don't have the words for my disgust. I have a low level of hate for everybody here in Silicon Valley. Such a bunch of go-alongs-to-get-alongs.

There is a part of me that wants these vaccines to kill. I'll admit it. Tired of being in clown world. I'm tired of living among people who don't exercise ANY critical thinking. I'm tired of the sheep.

richwicks says

Tenpoundbass says

richwicks says

In the last few years, it's become abundantly clear to me that people do see "science" as some sort of religion. Remember "follow the science"?

Yeah I was reading my two posts there, and was thinking, "well that really escalated fast!" in just 10 years, didn't it?

Sure did!

I really can't get over how so many engineers I know don't actually think. I thought they just didn't bother to follow world events and that's why they were so clueless and repeated the propaganda, but even when it effects them directly, they don't even do basic elementary thinking. One engineer's wife, quite obviously, doesn't want me in her house because I've been quite open about the refusal to be vaccinated, and she thinks I am a threat to them as a res...

HA! You're complaining about engineers - what about doctors? I went for my annual physical, and it was pathetic. They're doing EKGs for annual checkups now for god's sake. I ask why, they give me a bullshit excuse. But we all know why, don't we? It's all those poor fucks dropping dead from the clot shot. The shot they, the medical profession, pushed on us. Those goddamn fucking motherfuckers. Next year, I'll tear them a new asshole and have them run crying from the exam room.

Doctors have NO authority to tell me to do anything, not after what they've done to the millions of their patients with the clot shots.

They had to take my blood pressure twice because the first time I was thinking about the collateral damage from the clusterfuck that is the clot shot, and my systolic hit over 150. Rage, indeed.

stereotomy says

HA! You're complaining about engineers - what about doctors?

I never respected doctors too much. They are glorified mechanics. I know how a computer chip works, nobody knows how a freaking cell works, much less a complex organism.

You know who the most competent doctor I knew was? My vet. They are entirely free to make the best (informed) guess possible for their patient because they don't get sued for malpractice. A doctor is restricted as to what to recommend, because of lawyers. If it's generally accepted practice to put your on Remdesivir then put you into an induced coma, then a ventilator that blows your lungs out they can't be sued. If they put you on Ivermectin then you die, they can be.

stereotomy says

They had to take my blood pressure twice because the first time I was thinking about the collateral damage from the clusterfuck that is the clot shot, and my systolic hit over 150. Rage, indeed.

If you're going to loose it, kill a lawyer or a politician. They are the parasites of society.

I don't go to the doctor anymore.

There's no need to pay the bills for these idiots ...

stereotomy says

my systolic hit over 150.

Must have been quite a hot nurse that put the cuff on.

HeadSet says

stereotomy says

my systolic hit over 150.

Must have been quite a hot nurse that put the cuff on.

No, it was pure rage. The first nurse was a 40 something fatty. The NP was a natural blonde late 20's - I'd rate 7/10. I think she got butt hurt when I talked about all those 7 year olds dropping dead from the clot shot.

richwicks says

I never respected doctors too much. They are glorified mechanics.

A man after my own heart. Most doctors are just that, meat mechanics.

The Pareto Rule governs all professions. 80% of people you encounter are incompetent at what they do. I am so pleasantly surprised when I encounter a competent person.

stereotomy says

NP was a natural blonde late 20's - I'd rate 7/10. I think she got butt hurt when I talked about all those 7 year olds dropping dead from the clot shot.

It would be much better to have a 7/10 blonde butt hurt from taking her on a date.

https://nakedemperor.substack.com/p/bmj-opinion-from-former-editor-time/comments

BMJ Opinion from former Editor - Time to assume that health research is fraudulent until proven otherwise?

Health research is based on trust. Health professionals and journal editors reading the results of a clinical trial assume that the trial happened and that the results were honestly reported. But about 20% of the time, said Ben Mol, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Monash Health, they would be wrong. As I’ve been concerned about research fraud for 40 years, I wasn’t that surprised as many would be by this figure, but it led me to think that the time may have come to stop assuming that research actually happened and is honestly reported, and assume that the research is fraudulent until there is some evidence to support it having happened and been honestly reported. ...

Others have found similar results, and Mol’s best guess is that about 20% of trials are false. Very few of these papers are retracted. ...

We have now reached a point where those doing systematic reviews must start by assuming that a study is fraudulent until they can have some evidence to the contrary.

Here is where some sciences are discussed: https://arxiv.org/

Nothing you hear on the news is science or related to it. The journalists are clueless and often misleading when it comes to reporting event non-political scientific results.

stereotomy says

They had to take my blood pressure twice because the first time I was thinking about the collateral damage from the clusterfuck that is the clot shot, and my systolic hit over 150.

or just simple White coat syndrome, which people sometimes call white coat hypertension, is when a person develops high blood pressure, or hypertension, when they are around doctors, who often wear white coats. Some people who usually have normal blood pressure find that it spikes when the doctor takes a measurement. I get that because i think of it as a competition and get a little nervous...Just like the first tee in a golf tourney. I remember my friend jerry talking about the hearing tests in elementary school. He'd be concentrating hard because he wanted the tester to say that he had "SUPER HEARING" like Superman. I did that too

HeadSet says

Must have been quite a hot nurse that put the cuff on.

Anyone ever notice that the hotter the nurse is, the less pain you feel?

Researchers at Penn Medicine say findings underscore the need for increased out-of-office blood pressure monitoring. People with Untreated “White Coat Hypertension” Twice as Likely to Die from Heart Disease.

Or just stay away from assholes in white coats with blood pressure testers.

https://tobyrogers.substack.com/p/thinking-points-august-15-2022

Martin Kulldorff
@MartinKulldorff
During the 16th century reformation, many lay people understood the bible better than most priests.

During the 21st century pandemic, many lay people understood science better than most scientists.

Long terms implications will be equally profound.
August 10th 2022

Ezra Levant 🍁🚛
@ezralevant
36m
Nobel laureate Richard Feynman said science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts. A scientist never trusts anything without testing it. What you really want is obedience to ruling elites who want to be above criticism. Maybe start by not calling critics “stupid”

https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/forget-being-the-science-apparently?publication_id=323914&post_id=76294669&isFreemail=true

forget "being the science," apparently the UN now claims to OWN it
more adventures in "saying the quiet part out loud"




... had i posted a quote from an unknown speaker that stated:

“we own the science and we think that the world should know it…”
how many of you would have presumed that it MUST be over the top pastiche and that no one would possibly mistake for a sincere position on a topic?

because this is no joke. those are her precise words. please give her a listen. it’s amazing how much quiet part you can say out loud in 42 seconds.

1,500 scientists lift the lid on reproducibility
More than 70% of researchers have tried and failed to reproduce another scientist's experiments, and more than half have failed to reproduce their own experiments. Those are some of the telling figures that emerged from Nature's survey of 1,576 researchers who took a brief online questionnaire on reproducibility in research.
The data reveal sometimes-contradictory attitudes towards reproducibility. Although 52% of those surveyed agree that there is a significant 'crisis' of reproducibility, less than 31% think that failure to reproduce published results means that the result is probably wrong, and most say that they still trust the published literature.

EBGuy says

1,500 scientists lift the lid on reproducibility
More than 70% of researchers have tried and failed to reproduce another scientist's experiments, and more than half have failed to reproduce their own experiments. Those are some of the telling figures that emerged from Nature's survey of 1,576 researchers who took a brief online questionnaire on reproducibility in research.
The data reveal sometimes-contradictory attitudes towards reproducibility. Although 52% of those surveyed agree that there is a significant 'crisis' of reproducibility, less than 31% think that failure to reproduce published results means that the result is probably wrong, and most say that they still trust the published literature.

I think this only applies in psychology and other "soft" "sciences". In hard science, at least when I was in college, there was nothing more delightful to a researcher or graduate student to prove a paper was incorrect.

https://nitter.pussthecat.org/Not_the_Bee/status/1593027147907878912

ZUBY:
@ZubyMusic
Nov 16
What was the silliest, least scientific 'pandemic' policy?

Tons of good answers.